I’ve been meaning to create a pet sympathy card for a couple of years.

If you’ve ever lost a pet, you know it hurts so bad.

Animals you connect with – your relationship can be so healing and nurturing. They just look at you like you’re the coolest thing even if you’re feeling crappy about yourself.

I was going to incorporate a pet sympathy message in the design at first, but I came to love the design without it. This way, you can send the card as a pet sympathy or simply enjoy the art.

I named it All Things are Connected.

It’s a belief that keeps me humble and grateful to be part of the earth. I know my time here is just a tiny microscopic blip in the long history of the planet, and it puts me into perspective.

The apple trees in the art represent the orchard in eastern Washington where the ashes of our departed kitties lie. I smile and cry to imagine them snoozing under an apple tree and being friends with all the other pets that have left us.

It’ll be coming to the shop as a print, too.

My new collection will launch late January/early February 🌈 and I’ll be sharing more previews to get you excited in the coming weeks.

You can take your favorite reminder wherever you go on a water bottle, phone case, or laptop!

Now, here is a preview of what’s coming…

UGH. ADORABLE.

I had so many cute attacks making this Baby Shower card – “cute attack” is a condition Dave and I have when we see cute things – we scream “CUUUUTE!” and feel out-of-control infatuation for said cute things. All the logical parts of our brains shut down for a couple of minutes, and we no longer have an adult conversation.

More new works are happening in the studio, and I can’t wait to share them with you in the coming weeks.

What inspired you to do your “Happiness is” project?
At the time (spring of 2014), I was toying with the idea of becoming a working artist. And then I thought, if I wanted to be a working artist, I should be making art every day and enjoy the process. So that’s why I decided to start my 365 day daily art project. I’d also learned about Lisa Congdon (one of my heroes) and her daily art projects and was deeply inspired by it. I wanted to get over my fear of putting myself out there, too. It was sort of a shock therapy where I’d post my drawing (and not always perfect) every day, and eventually I cringed less about sharing my work on the internet.

As far as the topic goes, I wanted it to be something that’s relatively easy. I first thought about making art about food I eat every day, like a food journal, but knew I’d eat the same thing over and over 😀 So then I thought of happiness and what makes me happy every day. I’m not naturally a glass-half-full kind of a person…

The editor contacted me a couple of months back asking if they could see my calendar and potentially feature it in their holiday gift guide. Apparently, one of her co-workers has taken my block printing workshops and knew I made calendars. You never know who’s watching!

It was very exciting to see the calendar in a print publication – they always do such a good job creating beautiful and inspiring spreads.

When you work for yourself and don’t have a boss to tell you what a good job you’re doing, you rely heavily on your internal compass to know you’re going in the right direction.

I know I shouldn’t need constant external validation, but it sure is nice to be recognized like this.

Definitely one of my highlights this year!

Thanks for celebrating with me and not judging me for bragging 😚

xo

ps. I still have limited number of the llama calendar posters here. Order by the end of today, Sunday, December 16th for shipping before Christmas (remember, no shipping between 12/18-27.) Or you can pick it up at Renegade Craft Fair (my last show of the season) today 11-5!

Mine is Words of Affirmation. So any verbal or written appreciation or encouragement is all I need to keep going.

BTW – it’s really low on Dave’s Love Language totem pole (his is Quality Time), so in the beginning of our relationship, I had to constantly remind him that I needed him to say “thank you” when I did something nice. In return, I need to remember to spend more time with him rather than just saying I love him 😀

It’s no wonder I get a major love fix from your customer reviews!

Every time I get a notification that someone’s left a review, I do a happy dance!

Not only does it make me ridiculously happy, it also lets other shoppers know that my shop and products are legit.

So here I am asking you for a favor 😉

If you’ve purchased my goods (including from a retail shop) and LOVED it, would you mind taking a couple of minutes to leave a positive review?

You can do so by going to my online shop, find the item(s) you bought, scroll down, click on the “Write a review” button, and write something nice. It’s super easy!

What should you say? Well, I have some ideas 💡

You can say a little bit about why you bought the product, how you felt when you received the item, what’s your favorite thing about the product (e.g. colors, texture, a message etc.), how you’ve used the product, how the customer service was etc.

If you’ve gifted it to someone, you can say what the reaction of your recipient was or why you bought it for that particular person – seriously, anything is helpful!

And, If you’ve ever had a negative experience with my shop or products, please do contact me privately first. I care about your experience deeply and will do my best to fix it, ok?